"Killing or mutilating anyone, least of all a family member, is utterly unacceptable under all circumstances," Rona Ambrose, Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for the Status of Women, said Monday.

She also said the government is “looking at” adding honour killing as a separate charge to the Criminal Code.

Except Ambrose immediately had the rug pulled out from her by a spokesperson for the justice minister:

But Justice Department spokeswoman Pamela Stephens said that the government has no plans to add honour killings to the Criminal Code.

“An intentional killing is murder, regardless of the motive,” she said late Monday evening.

“The expression ‘honour killing’ is not listed in the Criminal Code nor is ‘domestic violence. Rather, the two are addressed through the existing offences in the code such as assault, criminal harassment, murder, and related aggravating factors.”

Well thank goodness that’s settled: murder is already illegal. Good to know. Let's get the word out.

The online description of one of the games reads, “Compete at the highest level of street racing with Need for Speed ProStreet. It’s no longer good enough to simply rule your local neighborhood; you need to dominate on a global stage.”

The government placed ads in a number of video games during February and March of this year. The ads were part of an attempt to encourage young people to complete their apprenticeship training and alert them to grants of up to $4,000.

A spokesperson for the department of whimsy and caprice confirmed that, thankfully, irony is not (yet) a crime.